He's Just A Boy
by underneathasycamore
Summary: There are moments in our lives that define who we are. Moments when we have to choose to do what is right or what is easy. This is where Draco Malfoy finds himself, on the cusp of a moment that could change everything. Takes place in sixth year. Slight AU.
1. Chapter One: Curiosity

**Authors Note: **

**hello everyone! First, thank you for taking the time to check out my next story! I hope you will enjoy it! Please take a moment to pot a review and tell me what you think!**

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**Chapter One: Curiosity**

When we are put under stress, our sympathetic nervous system gives us two options: fight or flight. Our brain releases hormones to increase our heart rate so that we can pump more oxygen to our muscles in order to run faster. It dilates our pupils so that we can see more clearly, and increases our blood sugar to fuel our body. When it comes down to it, you are given the same tools regardless of what you decide to do. The decision to run away from your problem is your own, but so is your choice to stay and fight.

There was no such thing as a quiet year at school for Hermione and her two friends. There was always some form of danger and darkness that was looming over their heads. It was a wonder that they were able to make it as far into the school year as December before something happened.

Hermione could feel the warmth in her bones from the butterbeer that she had consumed at The Three Broomsticks before leaving Hogsmeade. She, Harry, and Ron, were on their way on their way back to the castle when they came across fellow Gryffindor Katie Bell. The Gryffindor quidditch player was sprawled out on the snow covered path with her friend crying in hysterics beside her.

"I warned her not to touch it!"

Beside katie laid a crinkled piece of wrapping and a large ornate necklace. Hermione didn't have time to take a closer look at the piece of jewelry, because it was at that time that Katie was thrown in the air by an unseen force. Katie screamed in agony and continued to float in the air for a few minutes before being thrown back down onto the frozen ground. It was only after they were able to get Katie and the necklace back up to the castle to be inspected that they found were told about it's dark nature. Professor Snape inspected both Katie and the necklace himself, and stated that the girl was lucky to still be alive. When the trio were asked if they knew who had done this, Harry claimed that it was Draco Malfoy who had left the cursed necklace that Katie picked up. It was then that Hermiones curiosity about what the blonde wizard was up to began.

The next time that Hermione saw Draco Malfoy was when he was caught lurking around the corridors by Filch outside of where Professor Slughorn was holding his annual party.

Draco struggled against the hold that the caretaker had on him, "Let go of me you squib!"

Filch ignored the student's cruel remark and said, "I found this one lurking in the hallway upstairs. He says that he was invited."

Finally able to shake Flich's hold off of his jacket, Draco straightened his clothes. "Alright, alright! I was gatecrashing!"

By now, everyone at the party had stopped what they were doing to watch the scene that was going on. When Professor Snape took a hold of the situation and dragged Draco out of the room, Harry and Hermione shared a look with each other. They could both feel that something odd was going on between the professor and student. After having Luna distract Slughorn with discussion about Nargels, they were able to sneak away from the party and follow Snape and Draco. By the time they were close enough to hear the two Slytherins, the conversation was over. However, they were able to catch Draco's last trailing remark.

"I don't need your protection! It's my job, he gave it to me!"

When you watch someone break, you are often watching them come to the end of a long and difficult road. In the six years that Draco Malfoy had known Hermione Granger, he had never seen her cry. If he was honest with himself, he would say that he never found that fact surprising. He always thought she was too logical to become emotional over trivial things. That out of anyone she was able to talk her way out of feeling unhappy about a situation. Now he sees that she is just like everyone else.

She had transfigured small yellow birds and was making them fly around the room when he came across her. Her face was still wet with tears. The way she looks, sitting there upset and alone on the stone steps, made him stop and stare at her. She must feel his eyes on her because her head turns to look in his direction. And they stare at eachother, each waiting for the other to speak. He doesn't know what would have happened if he hadn't heard someone coming down the stairs behind her. He doesn't stay long enough to see who it is.

It's Harry that Hermione and Draco hear coming down the steps. If her mind wasn't so full and her heart didn't already ache as much as it did, she would be more curious as to why the blonde wizard had stopped and stared at her without calling her a name or making fun of her for being upset.

Hermione looks up at her friend as he reaches the bottom of the stairs. "How does it feel, Harry? When you see Dean and Ginny together? I know… I see the way you look at her."

Between school, and Ron, and keeping tabs on Malfoy, she can feel herself being spread thinner and thinner. She tells herself that those are the reasons that she snaps and sends her charmed birds after Ron's head when he barges in with Lavender Brown hanging off of his arm. Aside from school, nothing was working out as she hoped it would. Ron was being swooned over by Lavender Brown, and she was no closer to finding out what Malfoy was up to then she was a month ago. Her shoulders are heavy from the weight of it all and she wonders if she would still feel this old and tired if she had stayed out of the magical world.

Harry holds her hand and lets her rest her head on his shoulder as she cried. "It feels like this."

Not far away, in the Astronomy Tower, Draco leaned against a railing of the balcony and looked out onto the grounds of Hogwarts. It had been snowing all day, leaving the grounds covered in a fresh blanket of white snow. He had always felt that snow was a bit sneaky. It could cover the ugliest things and make them look beautiful. It could hide patches of ice, cling to leafless treats, and cover broken homes. The older he became, the more be came to distrust the substance. He wondered if he stood still long enough, if the snow would eventually cover him too.

There are over two-hundred-and-fifty thousand words in the English language. And yet, we can still find ourselves at a loss for words. We can still say the wrong things, and we can still have nothing to say at all. Somehow, there are still not enough words to describe how we feel.

Harry and Hermione were on their way to potions class when he brought up the topic of Draco Malfoy. "That night at Borgin and Burkes, Malfoy was looking at a vanishing cabinet."

Hermione furrowed her brow in concentration, the way she usually did when she was trying to solve a ruins problem. "What would Draco want with a vanishing cabinet?"

"You tell me."

Their conversation came to a halt when they turned the corner and saw Draco Malfoy standing against a wall with Blaise Zebini and Pansy Parkinson. It is only when she is sure that they are out of earshot that she says, "He looks different don't you think? Draco, I mean. Almost ill."

Harry doesn't look back and shrugs, "Who could tell the difference?"

Draco Malfoy had always been rather pale. But now he seemed to always have a bit of a green tinge to his skin, as if he was trying to keep himself from becoming ill. There were bags under his eyes that only showed up after many nights of lost sleep. Even his taunting of other students had been effected. He was still a foul person, but in the recent months it had taken much more to get a rise out of him. All in all, Draco Malfoy was a puzzle.

When Hermione was given a puzzle, she wasted no time on putting it together. And if she wasn't given all of the pieces, she would take them herself.

That evening she and Harry were working on homework together in the Gryffindor common room. It was only when she decided to go to bed that he mentioned something strange to her. "Hermione, I think Malfoy is leaving the castle. I've seen it. Sometimes, he just disappears off the Marauder's Map."

She shook her head, "That's not possible. No one can leave the castle these days. The map's wrong."

"The maps never wrong."

Ever since the incident with the necklace, Hermione had been watching the Malfoy with a closer eye. Harry was already suspicious, and Ron was between the clutches of that blonde bimbo, Lavender Brown, to take much notice in what was going on around him. What Harry said to her, about the map never being wrong, continued to replay in her mind as she laid awake in bed that night. The map had never been wrong before. But she didn't want to feed into Harry's suspicion unless she know she was absolutely right. And in order to do that she needed to have more facts, and that meant research. Which is why Hermione found herself tailing Draco Malfoy on a night that she could have spent working on her Transfiguration essay.

Harry really should learn to hide his invisibility cloak better. After a week of not getting any more information about the cause behind why Draco Malfoy is looking so terrible as of late, she decides to follow him to see where he goes at night. She had overheard Draco blowing off his Slytherin friends after dinner the past few days, saying that he had prefect duties. Hermione knew that this was a lie because he rarely showed up for prefect meetings let alone did his duties. On the first night that she follows him, she gets stuck going the wrong way on the staircases and loses him. It takes her close to another hour to find him again.

When she does find him, he isn't carrying any thing new with him. And he doesn't look any better, if anything he looks even worse. Her mind is racing with all of the possibilities as she runs back to the Gryffindor dormitory. She knows by now that when something seems suspicious it's usually because something bad is going to happen.


	2. Chapter Two: Dove

**Authors Note: Obviously I do not own Harry Potter or any of the plot that JKR developed. Hope you enjoy!**

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**Chapter Two: Dove**

There are some people in this world who find trouble, simply because they go looking for it. They are the ones that look for the smoke and find the burning fire. They do not just risk their life to find the boy who is trapped in the fire and save him. They also search out the boy who lit the fire and try to change him.

"Hermione, is the Room of Requirement unplottable on the map?"

Hermione shares a look with Harry. She is always a little weary when her friend asks her odd questions like this. "It could be, if one wants it to be. Why?"

Harry nods his head as if that was the answer he was expecting to receive. "Well, then that would explain why I thought Malfoy was leaving the castle. But when he disappeared off the map, he was just going to the Room of Requirement."

"Of course! And that would explain the vanishing cabinet as well…"

Ron shook his head, "But, when I talked to dad this morning, he said that the one at Borgin and Burkes is still there."

"No, I'm telling you. I saw it... What if there are two vanishing cabinets?" Once Harry believed in something, there was almost no changing his mind.

"What if there are?"

"I don't know."

She watches him as he quiets a white dove as it struggles to break free of his grasp. A few gentle strokes of its feathers and soft hushs settles it down. He opens the tall intricately designed door of a black cupboard. It looks ordinary to Hermione, but she knows better than to believe that anything inside of Hogwarts is ordinary.

He waits a few moments before opening the door again. She has no idea what he is expecting to happen, but is surprised herself when the dove doesn't fly out of the cupboard. She is startled when he slumps down to his knees. At first she thinks that he had been cursed by something in the cabinet, but then she hears him begin to sob.

It occurs to her that this is the first time she has seen him cry. Honestly cry, that is. This is different, it's not for show, or for sympathy, or to get out of trouble. This is the cry that you have when you are alone in your room and can't hold yourself together anymore. She is suddenly desperate to know what he is holding onto so tightly that it is tearing him apart. But she knows that confronting someone when they are at their weakest is not how you get them to trust you. That type of action only breeds resentment.

If she is honest, it is a long time before he is able to pull himself back together again and wipe his face. He stands and looks at the cabinet in thought for a few minutes longer before turning on his heel and walking out of the Room of Requirement. She waits a full five minutes after the door closes behind him before she moves from her hiding spot to examine the cupboard. When she reaches the cupboard she opens the doors fully in order to fully examine the inside of the cabinet. Inside it lies a small white dead bird. Hermione briefly wonders if he was thinking back to a time when he too was innocent, back to a time when they all were.

It's not that she doesn't trust Harry and Ron, because she does. They have been friends for six year, and been through an extraordinary amount together. Which is exactly the reason that she hasn't been updating the two of them on her research findings. She knows that both boys are a little headstrong and can charge into battle based off of one fact alone without taking a good look at the bigger picture. That's when mistakes happen, and they can't afford to have any.

She's been researching vanishing cabinets and doing some digging to see if any are still in use. As it turns out, vanishing cabinets come in pairs. They act as a passage between two places. When an object, or a person, is placed within the cabinet, it will be transferred from the inside of one cabinet to the inside of the second. Without two, the cabinets become virtually useless, and potentially dangerous. In addition, if a cabinet becomes damaged or broken, anything that is put inside of it can be trapped in a sort of limbo. When in working condition they are able to ward off all known defensive spells.

According to what Harry was told about them from Mr. Weasley, vanishing cabinets were very popular during the First Wizarding War. If unwanted visitors (such as Death Eaters) showed up, one could simply disappear through their cabinet until it was safe. It was also Mr. Weasley who told Harry that one of these cabinets are located in Borgin and Burkes. Hermione was positive that seeing Malfoy walk into that store at the beginning of the school year was no accident. He's trying to mend the broken one that is currently in Hogwarts, and obtain the vanishing cabinet from Knockturn Alley. Which leads her to her next question, which is why on earth does Draco Malfoy need a vanishing cabinet?

He can feel the walls caving in around him, and so he goes to the same place that he has been running to all these months. The girls lavatory on the second floor was still haunted by Moaning Myrtle, creating the perfect place to hide where no one will bother to go. His breathing is getting fast and shallow. He doesn't want to do this anymore. He can't do this, but knows that if he fails, he and his family will be killed. He catches a glimpse of a sad and sick boy in the mirror and tries to remember when he became this person. Was it all at once, with one wrong decision? Was it gradual, so gradual that he didn't know what he was doing until it was too late to get out? Was he born this way, was there no hope in trying to fight against the path that was laid for him?

"I can't do it… I can't... it won't work…and unless I do it soon…he says he'll kill me…"

The school vest that he wears is too heavy on his chest. He rips it from his body as though it is on fire, but it doesn't help. He can feel himself breaking down and doesn't stop it, finally giving himself a moment to feel.

"I know what you did, Malfoy. You hexed her, didn't you?"

At the sound of that voice, Draco whirls around. Standing before him, with his wand at the ready, is Harry Potter. Draco knows that if Harry goes to Dumbledore with this information that his mission will be found out. He'll have lost everything before he even had a real chance at saving it. He could feel his anger start to bubble up in his veins as he turned around to face the wizard. He would not go down without a fight.

He takes this opportunity to practice some of the nonverbal spells that he was been working on, and is somewhat pleased when they work. But Harry is quick on the defence and is able to dodge or block most of them. The bathroom is beginning to flood from one of the sinks that have been smashed and Draco knows it is only a matter of time before someone hears them duelling. This thought does not slow either of them down.

"Sectumsempra!"

That is the last word Draco hears before he finds himself lying on the wet bathroom floor now, in too much pain to contemplate moving. He can feel his strength draining from his body along with his blood. He wonders if he will die here. A part of him wishes that he would. All of the guilt, and pressure, and sadness could wash away and slip down a drain pipe. He could finally be free.

"Harry! What have you done?" He can hear footsteps splashing against the wet floor, "Shhh… I'm… I'm going to try and stop the bleeding."

Moaning Myrtle had been screaming bloody murder during this whole fight, it was only a matter of time before someone heard her and came to investigate. Surely fate had a cruel sense of irony if he was going to be saved by the very thing he was brought up to hate, he thought to himself. There kneeling beside him was Hermione Granger herself, altruistic as ever, trying to stop the bleeding and close his wounds. She was only two slices deep when Snape entered the bathroom. Shoving her out of his way and staring them both down until they left. Snape begins slowing down his blood loss and stitching his skin back together. If he had the strength, he would probably ask the professor to stitch the rest of his life back together as well.

"Vulnera Sanentur. Vulnera Sanentur. Vulnera Sanentur."

"Harry, wait! Harry!" She raced after her friend, grabbing his arm and spinning him around to face her once she got close enough. "What did you do? Why would you use a curse like that?"

Harry's face was a pale from severity of what he had done. "I didn't mean to! I didn't know what the spell would do. I… I found it in the potions textbook… He was the one who put that curse on the necklace Katie picked. I know he was! He's up to something, I can feel it."

Hermione grabbed onto him with both hands, ready to make him listen, with force if she had to. "Harry… This has to stop. You have no idea what you are dealing with when it comes to that book. You could have killed him!"

Harry looked down at his feet, ridden with guilt. "I know… I'll get rid of it. I'll get rid of it tonight."

When you have something, or someone, that is bringing negativity into your life there is only one way to get it out of your system. You need to purge it. Ignoring it will not be enough, neither will covering it up, or hiding it somewhere until you need it. You have to cut it up, burn it, bury it, and walk away.

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If you have read this, please take a moment to send a review. They make me oh so happy! :)


	3. Chapter Three: Tower

Thank you to everyone that has read this story of mine, and to **aliceroseee** and **latefebruary** for your reviews it was much appreciated!

I hope you enjoy the next chapter!

**Chapter Three: Tower**

There are three things in life that we can never be prepared for: Love, death, and betrayal. You can not prepare your heart for the fullness that it will feel when you find someone who loves you as deeply as you love them. The things that the person you are in love with will make you feel will continue to shock you, even years from now. It does not matter how much time death give you, or the number of warnings that he gave, death will always come as a dreadful surprise. And betrayal is something that no one ever sees coming, because it can only come to you from the hand of a friend.

As he walks the stairs of the Astronomy Tower, Draco thinks of many things. Like his first day at Hogwarts, and how he was mesmerized by all of the paintings and the staircases just like everyone else. He thinks about the first time he played on the Quidditch team and felt like he was doing something for himself for the first time. He remembers all of his classes and his now, none of the past six years seems to matter anymore. If he is successful in his task, no one will remember him as the child that he was. They will only be able to see him as a murderer and a coward. It is all of these thoughts that almost cause him to turn around, but then he remembers his family, and he knows what he must do to keep them safe.

When he arrives at the top of the tower, the old wizard is alone. "Good evening, Draco. What brings you here on this fine spring evening?"

"Who else is here? I heard you talking."

"I often talk aloud to myself, I find it extraordinarily useful. Have you been whispering to yourself Draco?" Dumbledore took in the stature of the young man who stood before him with his wand pointing at the old wizard's chest. "Draco, you are no assassin."

"How do you know what I am? I've done things that would shock you!"

"Like cursing Katie Bell and hoping that in return she would bear a cursed necklace to me? Like replacing a bottle of mead with one laced with poison? Forgive me, Draco. I cannot help feel that these actions are so weak that your heart can't really have been in them."

"Trust me. I was chosen!" He pulls his sleeve to his elbow to show his headmaster. His father always said that it was a great honour to bare the mark of the Dark Lord. As Draco looked down at his now, it makes his stomach turn.

The old wizard spreads his arms, as though he was ready to meet his fate. "I shall make it easy for you."

Draco knows better than to trust any wizard of Dumbledore's level of mastery and casts the headmaster's wand out of his hand. He has a clean shot now. Nothing to interfere with his task, nothing to stop him. He arm begins to shake and waiver as we see's what he has become. He thinks about lowering his wand, about walking away. Then he hears them.

"Draco… You're not alone? There are others. How?"

"The vanishing cabinet in the room of requirement. I've been mending it."

"Let me guess, it has a sister. A twin."

"At Borgan and Burkes. They form a passage."

"Ingenious! Draco… Years ago, I knew a boy, who made all the wrong choices… please, let me help you…"

Draco wants to tell him that he is not like that boy his headmaster is talking about. He wants to tell him that he never had a choice in this. His life was chosen long before this, long before a meeting on a tower, or a repair of a cabinet, or a ride on a train. Draco wants to tell Dumbledore that he thinks that it is too late for him to be saved.

"I don't want your help! Don't you understand? I have to do this. I have to kill you… Or he's going to kill me…"

In the end, it is Snape who kills him. There is no hesitation in his potion teacher's movements. The words are out quickly and without stutter. His arm does not shake and his aim is not off. Draco sees just how close he came to becoming a murderer. Everything is suddenly so real. The sounds are louder and the lights are brighter, as though everything has come into sharp focus and detail. He's being pushed to hurry down the stairs of the tower when his legs refuse to work. His body and his mind are numb, like when you are awaken from a dream and you aren't quite sure what is real and what isn't.

Snape stops him while Bellatrix and the other Death Eater's move further into the castle. "Draco, leave the castle. Get off of the grounds so that you can apparate to the manor. Speak to no one. Tell no one of what has happened. The Dark Lord will not be pleased with either of us. Wait until I arrive. Now Go. Go!"

And Draco does go, but he doesn't leave the castle. He simply runs.

The thing about people is that they are not made out of stone. They move and grow and change. They are not cemented into the ground, forever a constant in the world. Those that are, have not yet realized the potential that they have. They have not been shown that the world is at their fingertips, and that the direction that they go does not have to be the one where their compass is pointing. Draco throws himself into a corner against a wall. He's gasping, pulling at his hair and slamming his head into the brick behind him when she appears.

"Malfoy?"

He doesn't bother to raise his head from its place where his hands are holding it above his folded knees. He know's exactly who that grating voice belongs to. "Get out of here, Granger!"

"I'll do no such thing!" She never could stand being told what to do by someone else other than an authority figure.

"I mean it, Granger! Get the fuck out of here. If you don't they will kill you!"

"We can figure something out. Just tell me –"

"Tell you what? That I'm exactly the person that everyone thinks I am?!" He stands for face her and rips the sleeve of his shirt to his elbow, revealing what she had feared was true all this time. Draco Malfoy was a Death Eater. "I'm one of them now! Can't you see that? Dumbledore's dead because of me. I had to do it. He was going to kill me and my family if I didn't. I didn't have a choice. But I couldn't… I couldn't kill Dumbledore. But what does it matter? I'm as good as dead now anyways…"

A scared boy. That is what Hermione sees when she looks at him. Scared of the person that he had become, and scared that it is too late for him to change. The funny thing about mistakes is that you don't know that you're making a mistake until it's already done. Our hindsight is only 20/20, and even if it wasn't we would probably do the same thing anyways.

"No you're not." Hermione is rushing towards him and pulling off Harry's cloak before she can change her mind. "Put on this cloak. No one will be able to see you or find you while you're wearing it. Go to the Gryffindor common room on the fourth floor. It's behind the portrait of the fat lady. You'll have to wait for someone to come along and say the password so that you don't draw attention to yourself. When you get in wait for me by the fire place. Stay close to the walls and don't bump into anyone. I will find you and we will figure something out."

By now Draco is nothing but a floating head. He knows that he should thank her but he can't quite get his tongue to form the words. Before him stands a girl that he has known and despised for over six years. As he looks at her now, he tries to see what it is that he has hated so much for so long, but all he finds is bushy hair, courage, naivety, and too much knowledge for her own good. They both knew that he could take this cloak and disappear. Or that he could give this cloak over to the Voldemort as another weapon to use against them. Yet still, she trusted him. How many times did someone have to offer to save him before he let them?

"Go." She tells him. And when he doesn't move she says it again and pushes him into moving. He raises the hood of the cloak and vanishes from sight with no indication of what direction he went.

Sometimes you will be given a second chance. A chance to do the right thing. A chance to tell the truth. A chance to say you're sorry. Sometimes you get a second chance because you have earned it, and sometimes you get it because someone wants to let you try things one more time. But a second chance does not mean that you forget all that things that you did with the first one. No, not at all, remembering everything that you have done is very important if you don't want to make the same mistake again.

If you have come this far, thank you very much for reading! Please take a moment to send me a review with your thoughts. I welcome constructive criticism :)

thank you!


	4. Chapter Four: Order

My apologies for the long wait on updating. I've been working quite a lot the past few weeks and just haven't had the time. Also for those that have read the first chapter of my other story **Young Volcanoes,** it has not been abandoned. The chapters are just so long (7,000+ words) that it take me a long time to write. I'm about half way through the next chapter and hope to be posting next week.

Onto the story!

**Chapter Four: Order**

There is no truth behind someone saying that they did not know why they did something. They absolutely know why. It is perhaps that they are not yet able to admit the reason to themselves.

Through the window of the now empty Gryffindor Common room, Draco is able to see exactly what he has done. On the ground below lays the body of Albus Dumbledore. Harry was the first one to reach the wizard's body, and behind him are a wave of Hogwarts students. They will all be seeing what he has done know. He will be shunned, he will be hated. He doesn't know when it got to this; when he became a boy trying to live up to a man's expectations. He doesn't remember the last time that he looked in the mirror and liked the person that was staring back at him. He wonders if it will just get worse, if eventually he won't be able to stand seeing his reflection at all.

He watches as one by one, students and professors raise their wands. Each with a glowing tip at the end until it looks as if he is looking up at the night sky. Thousands of constellations given for their fallen leader, for a white light of hope that they no longer had.

Draco's chest began to tighten and the image of Dumbledore being hit with the curse and falling off the tower continues to play in his mind. Tightening the cloak that Hermione had given him closer around himself, he walks over to a dark corner by the fireplace. He doesn't know how much time he has before people return, or how long he will have to wait before he knows if he will be shown mercy or violence.

Close to an hour later, all of the students have filtered back into the castle. Students have been directed to their common rooms while the professors hold an emergency meeting. He is sure that they are discussing their now missing potions professor and sixth year Slytherin prefect.

It's nearly two o'clock in the morning by the time that the only people who have yet to go to bed are Harry, Ron, and Hermione. He had seen Hermione looking around the room trying to spot him. There was no way for him to give her a sign without revealing himself to the rest of the room, and so he stayed by the fireplace. Even when it is just the golden trio left, he waits. He knows how reactive Potter and Weasley could be.

"Do you think he was really going to do it, Malfoy?"

"No, he was lowering his wand. In the end, it was Snape."

Ron shakes his head, "I always knew that Snape was a creepy bloke. But this…"

Harry gripped his fists and looked into the flickering fire, "He was a spy for Voldemort, this whole time. All these years."

"And what about Malfoy? Have those two slimy bastards run away with the other Death Eaters."

Harry shrugged his shoulders in defeat. "Yeah, I reckon so. Although…"

Hermione paused from her pacing. "What is it, Harry?"

"Well, when we were in the tower, before Bellatrix and Snape showed up, Dumbledore was trying to talk Malfoy out of it. He could see that he didn't want to do it, he tried to give him a way out; offer him protection."

Hermione pulled out her wand and cast a quick _silencio_ around them. "Harry, I need to tell you something. I saw Malfoy after he left the tower. I think he was going to run, but not with Snape, away from him. I think he wants out."

"He had a chance, Hermione. He didn't take it."

She bit her lip and began to chew on it. This was either going to go well or be a disaster, and she was willing to bet on the later. "You both need to see something. And before you both react you need to remember that Dumbledore was willing to help him. Malfoy, if you're in here it's time to come out."

Draco would be lying is he said that he didn't contemplate staying under the cloak. Weasley looked as if he was going to pop a blood vessel in his head.

"You brought him here!? You brought the scum that was going to kill Dumbledore here?!"

Hermione whirled around to face Ron. "Dumbledore offered to help him! Doesn't that mean something?"

Ron stepped forward and shot an accusatory finger in Draco's direction. "He was willing to kill him, and tried to more than once, doesn't that mean something?!"

"Enough! Both of you!"

Ron, Hermione, and even Draco looked up to see that Harry had shot up out of his seat. Harry took up Hermione's pacing and did so for a few minutes. The others stood and watched him, not daring to continue their argument.

"If I had is my way, Malfoy, you would be rotting in Azkaban for the rest of your life. I don't know what Dumbledore saw in you, because as far as I can tell you are nothing but a coward who was willing to take a man's life in order to save his own."

Hermione took a step forward. "Harry… None of us have a choice in this, not any more."

Harry held up a hand to stop her and continued to speak. "But I don't think that your sentence is up to me. We'll take him to The Order. They can decide what to do with him."

Harry stood up and climbed the staircase to the boys dormitories saying that he is going to send an owl to Lupin. Hermione gives her friend a smile and nodes before sitting down on one of the red sofas. Draco doesn't know what good she see's in him. He has seen his blood and his bone, he has seen himself at his very worst. He has been at the core of hatred and given it water to grow. He see's no good in him; no silver lining. Just a fucked up boy trying to keep his head above the water.

You would think that something that forces you to tell the truth would taste bad. But veritaserum is without taste, odour, or colour. That is what makes it so easy to slip into people's drinks and have them spill their secrets. There are of course ways around this particular potion. Wizards that are skilled in Occlumency are able to fight against the potions powers and may be able to hold back giving up their life story. And though Draco has some skill in this area, he is nowhere near powerful enough to defend himself against the serum.

Remus Lupin looked older and more worn then Draco remembered him. He had never been this close to his former professor. Sitting only a few feet from him now, he was able to take a closer look at the man. Scars line the man's face, as though an animal with great claw had scratched him. Remembering the rumours about Professor Lupin resigning after it was made public that he was a werewolf, Draco believes that the scars may very well be from a claw. Taking in his greying hair and tired eyes, Draco concludes that the werewolf had aged far more than the three years that it had been since he had been his student.

Remus placed his elbows on the table that stood between them and leaned forward, giving his former student a long hard look. "Did you attempt to kill Albus Dumbledore?"

Before Draco can contemplate how to answer the question, he finds his lips moving. "Yes."

"Why did you try to kill him?"

"Because The Dark Lord ordered me too… He said that he would kill my family and me if I didn't. We've both seen what he's capable of… I didn't have any other choice."

Remus' eyes narrowed as he looked at the boy. "So then why didn't you follow through with killing him?"

"Because I couldn't do it."

"Why?"

"Because I didn't want to be a murderer!"

In a flash of anger, Remus reached across the table and grabs Draco's arm. With his other hand, he pushes the boy's sleeve up to reveal his forearm. There staring back at them is the mark of a Death Eater.

"I find that hard to believe." Lupin snarls before dropping the wizards arm. "Are you here as a spy, to get information and bring it back to Voldemort?"

"No."

"Are you here to attack someone else from The Order?"

"No."

Remus allowed a pause of silence to fill the room before asking his next question. "Have you come to revoke yourself from the dark side and join us?"

"No."

Letting his frustration get the better of him, Remus slammed his hands on the table, causing Draco to jump slightly in surprise. "Then why are you here?!"

"I don't know! I just couldn't do it any more! I was so tired of being scared all the time. I didn't want or ask for any of this. I just wanted out."

After the veritaserum finishes with this particular confession, they are both quiet. Draco looks down at the table, focusing on a scratch in the grain. He had never said those words aloud before. Not to his parent's, not to his friends, not even to himself. He hears Remus push his chair back from the table, and leave the room. Once again, his fate was not in his own hands.

The thing about telling the truth is that you are never quite sure what it is going to get you. With a lie, you can mold it and spin it into exactly what you need; into exactly what you know will get you out of trouble, rather than in it. But the problem with a lie is that it doesn't matter how good it is, or how many of them there are, the they always have a way of unravelling and revealing the truth that lies beneath.

Lupin leaves the makeshift interrogation room and joins Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the sitting room. When he enters they are huddled together in a hushed discussion, and he is fondly reminded of how often he, James, and Sirius were found in the same position. When the trio notices him, they are quite to depart and look at him hesitantly.

"From what I could gather in my short conversation with Mr. Malfoy, I feel confident that we are safe in keeping him within the order, for the time being. It seems that he is rather torn with what he is doing, and we will need to do some further interrogation to determine if he should be held as a captive or accepted as an ally."

What he says doesn't seem to comfort them or upset them. He is sure that they are just as confused about what is going on as the young man in the interrogation room is.

"I will speak with Mad Eye about what to do with the boy; he will remain in our custody. But for now, I suggest you all continue on with your summer plans."

As Hermione climbed into the spare bed in Ginny's room that night, a number of things crossed her mind. The number of things she had to pack in the morning before leaving The Burrow, what she was going to tell her parents about what happened, and how she was going to keep them safe in all of this. And just as she began to drift off to sleep, Draco Malfoy entered her mind. She contemplated what Lupin had said and didn't expect that she would see him again for quite some time.

Thank you so much for reading! Please take a moment to send me a review with your thoughts :)


	5. Chapter Five: Obliviate

**Chapter Five: Obliviate**

When Draco was told that he was being brought to another location for further questioning, he expected that it would be some other house. That he would be given a bed and food; be able to see the sun. He could see now that he was wrong in that assumption; that although these two armies were fighting towards different goals, that they functioned in similar ways.

There is a hierarchy of command. There are secret plans, and hushed conversations. There are prisoners, and he had become one of them.

He is placed in a small windowless room, lit only by a single dangling light bulb that never turns off. There is no bed, only a stained blanket and pillow. The only time that he is allowed out of the room is for interrogation and to go to the bathroom. Without a window to see the sun, he quickly loses track of time and how long he has been there. Whenever he comes into contact with someone, he asks them what day it is. He is rarely given an answer. This is what deprivation feels like. When he is trapped in the four walls of that room, he has nothing else to do but think. And that is the last thing that he wants to do.

The interrogation tactics that The Order uses are softer than that ones that Voldemort and his followers use. If you were caught by the dark side, the would torture the information out of you and then kill you off slowly anyway. The members of The Order did not seem to use such grave tactics. Then again, perhaps they only spared him from those because of his age. Or perhaps it was because he was co-operating with them. He didn't plan on testing any of his theories.

Here is what they don't tell you about doing the right thing. Sometimes doing the right thing sucks. At times it feels worse that doing the wrong thing, or doing nothing at all. Doing the right thing can sometimes mean that you have to do something wrong in the process. Doing the right thing could leave you feeling nauseous and covered in grime.

"Hermione, time for tea!"

"Coming mum!"

As she walked down the stairs, Hermione took in all of the pictures along the way. Each one bringing up different memory and emotion than the other. Pictures of her first day at school, when she got Crookshanks, Her second birthday covered in cake, that time her parent's took her to the zoo when she was nine. All of the things memories and emotions that she would be taking from her parents.

She keeps replaying Lupin's warning to her in her mind to keep her nerve. Muggles are sitting ducks. Death Eaters take pleasure in killing them. The ones that have ties to the magical world get it even worse.

She has to do the one thing that she always promised her parent's she wouldn't, in order to keep them safe. If she came out of this alive, she hoped that they would forgive her and understand why she had to do this. And if she didn't come out of this alive… Then they would still be safe and happy. She was doing the right thing.

"Obliviate."

And with that, Hermione Granger leaves the only home that she has known with no idea if she will ever be able to return. She knows that she is doing the right thing. But doing the right thing has left her heartbroken. She leaves her home on foot and walks for hours before apparating to The Burrow.

Sometimes, when your world is embedded with darkness, it is hard to remember the things and the people that give you light. It's hard to remember that life goes on, no matter what. The seasons will change, people will fall in love, we will go to sleep and wake up in the morning. It seems impossible, but the world does continue to turn.

"Which one is getting married again?" Draco asked.

"Bill, he's the second oldest, is marrying Fleur Delacour."

"Right, from Beautons. Still can't believe someone with Vela is getting married to a Weasley."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "It wouldn't kill you to be nice to the family who is playing host to you, Malfoy."

He glanced over his shoulder at the couch that he had slept on last night. "Yeah, some hosts."

Hermione heard hushed whispers of the Minister of Magic having arrived at The Burrow. Mr. Weasley had sent a patronus ahead of him to warn them. She catches a glimpse of Mrs. Weasley quickly ushered Draco up the crooked staircase. Hermione always wondered how much The Order and The Ministry got along; evidently not very well. She was beginning to get the impression that the few remaining members of The Order did not trust many others. She only just managed to gather Harry and Ron when The Minister arrives.

"I require a word with you, Mr. Potter. Also, with Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger… In private."

Ron took the lead and lead the other three into the sitting room. It was nearly dusk, leaving the room and a soft light. Hermione flicked her wand to light the candles around them and provide more light.

After being seated, The Minister cleared his throat. "I assume the three of you know why I am here."

In all actuality, the trio had no idea as to why The Minister of Magic was paying them a visit. The three looked at each other cautiously before shaking their heads.

"No? I would say that it will come to a surprise then that Dumbledore named the three of you in his will.'

Ron's face held the look of surprise, "All of us?"

"Hang on, why has it taken so long for us to hear about this? Dumbledore has been dead for nearly a month now!"

Before Scrimgeour could respond to Harry's outburst, Hermione did. "You had no right to do that." Taking in Harry and Ron's confused looks she continued, "Do you get it? Whatever Dumbledore left us, The Ministry has held on to so that they can examine it!"

"We had every right." Scrimgeour argued. "The Decree for Justifiable Confiscation give the Ministry the authority to confiscate the contents of any will that the ministry-"

"Then it would also appear that the Ministry has the power to bend laws to fit their fancy. That law was created to stop wizards from passing on artefacts of dark magic. And if I recall, must have substantial evidence before doing so."

Scrimgeour's lips turned up at one side. "The Ministry could certainly use a witch such as yourself in Magical Law, Miss. Granger."

She held her gaze, "I'm sure it could."

To fill the silence that followed her response, Scrimgeour put his hand into his cloak and withdrew a black velvet pouch. From that pouch he withdrew a scroll of parchment, which has charmed to hover in place as he read it out loud.

"_The Last Will and Testament of Albus Percival Wilfric Brian Dumbledore. To Ronald Billius Weasley, I leave my Delumminator in the hope that he will remember me when he uses it. To Miss. Hermione Jean Granger, I leave my copy of _The Tales of Beedle the Bard, _in the hope that she will find it entertaining and instructive. To Harry James Potter, I leave the snitch he caught in his first Quidditch match at Hogwarts, as a reminder of the rewards of perseverance and skill."_

Scrimgeour then reached into the black pouch once more to withdraw three items. "A delumminator for Mr. Weasley. The Ministry had no record of this object prior to Dumbledore's will. We believe that it may have been one of his own creation. For Miss. Granger, a children's book."

He handed the two objects to Ron and Hermione who both turned their own gifts over in their hands. Hermione had never heard tell of this book before, and already her fingers were itching to open it and see if Dumbledore had left them any secret messages. But she knew that she couldn't, what they had to do was too important and fragile for the Ministry to stick their fingers into it.

"And for Mr. Potter…" In wrapped in a cloth, he presented Harry with a golden snitch. Once free from the bindings of the cloth, it's wings stretched out and began to flutter gently. "Why would Dumbledore leave this to you?"

"I have no idea, Minister. Perhaps because I was quite talented at the game."

Scrimgeour and Harry continued to hold each others gaze. Hermione could feel the tension begin to rise in the room and was sure that it was making her hair even frizzier as the seconds went on. It was only after Harry had taken the snitch from the cloth and held it in his hand that the Minister left. As Hermione opened the book that had been left for her, a feeling came over her. The feeling that things were only just beginning to unfold for them.


End file.
